Have you ever wondered who builds these Sky scrapers?
Yes, indeed, the wonderful designers, and the great architects!
But in reality it is the workers that work 12 hour shifts, often 24 hours a day.
These workers leave their families back home in the hopes of an honest wage.
Two years of not going home at night to their homes, and not holding a child in their lap.
Their child, their grand children.
A Wonderful woman by the name of Pamela Abdalla with a big heart and even a bigger vision came up with what seemed like the crazy idea of doing “Bus Raids”….. On any given day, meeting a bus that
is picking up workers from the site to take them to the labor camps and to give them a snack for the
ride home. Yes, indeed like other crazy ideas this one took. After a couple years and a dozen or so
bus raids to local construction sites, and today we did one to serve 2000 workers.
The partnership with Living Social has made it possible for us to reach thousands of laborers. The deal took the online social community by storms via emails, Facebook messages, and Twitter. Supporters from all over the world placed donations “Special orders”. At approximately 8:40 PM, with eight hours still to go, the Living Social “Laborers Loved” online deal sold out with 3,500 care packages donated by the community.
The big idea and vision behind this concept is that on any given day, anywhere in Abu Dhabi, or the emirates schools, businesses and communities would do a “bus raid” just showing up to a local construction site and bring us back to our humanity. That as humans one of our basic needs is to be “seen” and appreciated.
This service program now managed by Mariam Al-Mazrouei, Suparna Mathur, Bahareh Amidi, and Karen Heimgartner is dedicated to Pamela Abdulla. Thank you Pamela for helping us realizes how easy it is to make people smile from inside and out on sides, the givers and the receivers.
And finally, I would like to share with you a small piece I wrote today as we sat in a beautiful home of our friend and we packed bags… I of course took lots of writing breaks: )
Here I am sitting in the midst of wealth
Wealth of love
Wealth of charity
But mostly wealth of clarity of our purpose in life
As a humble reminder that we are not here in this world only to eat, drink and go
As a humble reminder that we are here to serve to feed with love and to receive light
Ladies, sisters packing bags of food for brothers working far away from home from their families
It is small acts and tasks that actually make a difference on our daily reason to live
The little boy walking around saying Amah….
The boy breathing this air, he will indeed know what to do when he is old
To treat all humans equal no matter what color race or brand
To treat all wounds with a caring touch. To touch to heal to touch to heal
Looking into another’s eyes to get a glimpse of today for someone else
As I finish this thought the call to prayer is heard
The call that reminds me that the sun will set once again
And indeed the sun will rise again tomorrow so breath in breath out
Thank you for this light experience today that will touch lives as days to come and as our children
become men and women
Raid thoughts raid hearts raid souls with love and touch each others hearts
Bahareh
And finally how could I not notice the beautiful gray parrot on the side of the living room watching over the thousands of bags. I wondered what he wondered…. I thought that he must think today is the day that some parrots get to fly out of the cage and into the light. Today it is windy out, maybe even a parrot like me who has not flown for years can fly. This beautiful creature reminded me that there are shades of gray in all of our lives. I talked to him for a while and when I walked away he called me to come back… he liked being SEEN and I liked being HEARD. Thank you for this flight of the soul on a very gray day in Abu Dhabi.
TOday even the parrot looked out to see what was happening in the Huge Parking lot in Abu Dhabi under the gray skies and the windy day…. yes indeed, buses and buses, bags and bags…. but mostly heart and hearts and eyes and eyes connected the beautiful web of light that connects us all through the same umbilical cord to mother earth. Good night moon, good night starts, good night all brothers and sisters in the world. Good night light, come again sun tomorrow in the morning as I rise: )
To read more about this even from The National
One of the best ways to spend an evening in Abu Dhabi with 2000 people who are busy building our homes and offices. Thank you Bahareh for taking the time to document this inspiring event.
May the tribe increase!
I loved this:
“It is small acts and tasks that actually make a difference on our daily reason to live”
Indeed!
Yes, indeed, it is the small things in life that make the GRANDEST difference in our life and the life of others. The small gesture of a smile, that comes from a pure and gold heart. By the way have you ever tried smiling at an ant…. not aunt but ANT? If so, tell me what you experience. If not try it and you shall know.
Thank you, yes, may this table of feast extend to all homes with no meals around the world. May we all have enough to eat and not too much to store. How beautiful it would be to go to the plantation for corn and listen to the music of the sun in each kernel. Enough for ALL HUMANITY to eat and not stare. May the tribe increase. Indeed!!!
Love this–the actions, the thoughts behind the actions, the poem, the parrot. Please, please send me a note the next time you’re putting this together!
Indeed, Promise!!! I shall start to write about it before it happens so that more of us can experience the magic of the day together. The song of the parrot in the cage can be heard when our hearts are in flight together. Yes, indeed we will put it together together.
I love how you continuously give back to the community with your actions and words. Keep on doing God’s work. Your words and your actions are infused with light, love, faith, and humanity. You are breathtaking.
If only it were true that actions speak louder than words, at this moment it would be evident that there was a full loud orchestra heard in the skies above. Actions of a community coming together to heal their own hearts as they bring smiles to others’ lives. Thank you dear friend for reading and supporting the light filled space. Thank you
You are amazing! It was really good to meet you today and i’m overwhelmed on what you are planning to do on our project.
See you soon!
Dearest Friend, I have been thinking of our meeting and I am touched by your caring manner. I feel you are a sister to thousands of brothers away from their families. Thank you for helping us make this dream come true. Thank you for your kind comment.